Alumnus - College of St Hild and St Bede University of Durham
About
I directed a landscape archaeology programme in the English Lake District valley of Kentmere 1981-1990. I'm now writing up the results - working these into a comprehensive analysis of upland archaeology and its theoretical/knowledge base in the Lake District and Northern Britain.
The programme team excavated pre-Viking and Viking period upland structures at Bryant's Gill, Kentmere and a medieval farmstead near Kentmere Hall. The monograph publication of these excavations and related surveys is scheduled for 2013.
My other research and publication interests include the archaeology of the English Lake District and Cumbria. There's no decent up-to-date guide to this area, so I'm writing one! I'm also interested in academic and popular approaches to the archaeology of early Christian monasticism and the archaeology of, academic interaction with, and academic presentation of, Hadrian's Wall and its Northern British pre-Roman, Roman and post-Roman hinterland. Also - I have conducted fieldwork on the Island of Rum (Inner Hebrides) on pre-1828 upland structure complexes including 'deer traps'.
I more recently directed a survey and excavation programme at Urswick in Low Furness, Cumbria 2004-5 following the 2002 publication of a monograph detailing results of a comprehensive analysis of the rune and sculpture face of a significant late 7th century AD Anglo-Saxon runestone in the church of St Mary and St Michael, Great Urswick. This project involved around two hundred people, including locals and students.
I'm especially interested in academic and non-academic archaeology power/knowledge networks and the application of ANT (actor-network theory) to these. If, by researching the past, as some might have it, we merely research the materiality; the ideas, of a moving present, then we need to articulate how our knowledge and our social networks affect our understanding and presentation of 'past'.
Welcome to the worlds of transition, translation and negotiation... multiple worlds of archaeological and social thick and thin descriptions; where the often apparently simple objectives of revealing 'evidence of the past' mix with certain gritty skin-thin realities. The realities of working with peers, mentors and people with their own ambitions and agendas. The limitations of specialisation, of commercial archaeology, of naive archaeology without theory. In other words pushing against disciplinary boundaries - seeking new routes into a fresh and different perspective on archaeology.
I first experienced professional excavation with Durham University on the Brough of Birsay on Orkney, Northern Scotland. An amazing experience - followed by many others. If you're an undergraduate or graduate looking to follow your goals - of excavation, of description, of understanding the past; then you might be interested in the world of ANT as it applies to the challenge of, the business of, the science of, the depiction, representation and interpretation of, archaeology.
Contact Information
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(+44) 0776 198 2827 |
